Brendan Rodgers did his best to talk up Celtic’s loan signing from Norwich City at yesterday’s media conference at Lennoxtown ahead of today’s Scottish Premiership match against Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
Adam Idah will be in the squad and is likely to be on the bench, perhaps making his debut as a second half substitute for Kyogo. Rodgers admitted that the club could have been braver in this window and seems to have a grasp of the supporters’ frustrations having of course heard it for himself last weekend with the boos ringing around Parkhead after the Ross County game.
Brendan Rodgers applauds the Celtic support
The Irish international spoke to the media yesterday, including the Celtic fan media, and confirmed that he’s had a warm reception from the Celtic support. And despite Chris Sutton’s less than glowing assessment earlier in the week, which he clarified this morning in his newspaper column, Rodgers reckons that Idah and also his other January signing Nicolas Kuhn will add some quality to his squad.
“They are certainly going to support what is here,” Rodgers said. “Again it is about having that strength in depth for us, which I thought was key to building the squad, especially considering the number of players we have had out injured this year.
“The likes of Adam, I have no doubt about him. When I came across his name, I was excited by him. I’d seen him as a young player when he was playing as a 17-year-old for the under-21s in the Republic of Ireland.
“Then I saw him up against my teams in the Premier League. Seeing his physicality, pace, power, ability with the ball and he is still very young. He is 22 years of age and he still has so much potential and so much more development left in him.
“He’s got enough experience having played in the Premier League and coming here for four months allows us to take a look at each other. I know he is absolutely excited to be here.
“From where he is from he knows the importance of Celtic and he wants to come here and make an impact. I am excited by his talent and to see if we can unlock that. If we can he can be absolutely brilliant for us,” the Celtic manager said.
Meanwhile Sutton’s comments today on Celtic’s loan signing from Norwich are worth mentioning. he said, via his Daily Record column: “I’ve been accused of filleting Adam Idah – but that is not the case. I do believe he has attributes but you have to be honest and he’s a striker who hasn’t been able to get into a bang average Norwich City side ahead of an ageing Ashley Barnes.”